Clare McHugh reads from her latest novel, The Romanov Brides

From the author of A Most English Princess comes The Romanov Brides, a moving and fascinating portrait of two bold and spirited royal sisters, bringing imperial Russia to vivid life—a dazzling, decadent world on the brink of disappearing forever.

Kate Feiffer in conversation about her new book Morning Pages

Elise Hellman was once heralded by audiences and critics as a "playwright to watch." Then they forgot all about her. When a prestigious theater company unexpectedly offers her a generous commission to write a new play, she has an opportunity to turn her career around. With sixty-five days left until her deadline, Elise starts scribbling[read more...]

Debbie Babitt reads from her new thriller The Man on the Train

Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Linda Haley is awakened early one morning by two police officers at the door. She has no idea that her husband has been living a secret life during his daily commute from Scarsdale into the city. Now Guy is the prime suspect in a brutal murder that could derail Linda's high-powered[read more...]

Editor Andrew Blauner presents his latest anthology On the Couch with contributors Adam Gopnik & Phillip Lopate

W. H. Auden described Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) as “a whole climate of opinion / Under whom we conduct our differing lives.” The controversial father of psychiatry and psychoanalysis, Freud charted the human unconscious, brought us the talking cure, and wrote books that now rank among the classics of world literature. In On the Couch, the great[read more...]

John Darnton in conversation about his new book Burning Sky

In Burning Sky, three generations of a family confront the life-and-death challenge of global warming. The first, a cantankerous climatologist, raises the alarm. The second, a brilliant scientist with a lust for power that spawns a dictatorship, constructs “the Cocoon,” a stratospheric shield to deflect sunlight. When it cuts the Earth off from the blue sky[read more...]

Teddy Wayne reads from his latest novel The Winner

Conor O'Toole has never been anywhere as casually glamorous as Cutters Neck, a gated community near Cape Cod. It's a sweet deal for the summer: free lodging in a guest cottage in exchange for tennis lessons, luxuriously far from the cramped Yonkers apartment he shares with his diabetic mother. In this oceanfront paradise, however, new[read more...]

Allison Pugh in conversation about her new book The Last Human Job

Drawing on in-depth interviews and observations with people in a broad range of professions—from physicians, teachers, and coaches to chaplains, therapists, caregivers, and hairdressers—Allison Pugh develops the concept of “connective labor,” a kind of work that relies on empathy, the spontaneity of human contact, and a mutual recognition of each other’s humanity. The threats to[read more...]

Phillip Lopate launches his latest book My Affair with Art House Cinema

Phillip Lopate fell hard for the movies as an adolescent. As he matured into an acclaimed critic and essayist, his infatuation deepened into a lifelong passion. My Affair with Art House Cinema presents Lopate's selected essays and reviews from the last quarter century, inviting readers to experience films he found exhilarating, tantalizing, and beguiling--and sometimes disappointing or[read more...]